A new remake of the classic British TV series The Avengers is in the works, with Sex Education’s Ben Taylor said to be directing.
One of the most fondly-remembered TV shows of the 1960s is getting a 21st century remake, as Deadline reports that a reboot of The Avengers is bubbling away at rights holder StudioCanal.
A pilot has reportedly already been written for the spy series revival – Mickey Down and Konrad Kay are the wordsmiths responsible – and there’s also a director attached: Ben Taylor, best known for his work on Sex Education.
The Avengers originally aired from 1961 onwards, and starred Patrick Macnee as the dapper British secret agent and wearer of bowler hats, John Steed. Actor Ian Hendry originally starred alongside Macnee when the series began, but he soon left. A succession of glamorous female side-kicks followed, played by the likes of Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg and Linda Thorson.
An impressive 161 episodes of The Avengers were made across its eight-year initial run, and its popularity meant that it made a return in the 1970s with The New Avengers, also starring Macnee.
The Avengers was adapted as a $60m big-screen action-comedy in 1998, this time with Ralph Fiennes as John Steed and Uma Thurman as his assistant, Emma Peel. Despite the starry cast – Sean Connery also appeared as the weather-tinkering villain – the film didn’t go over well with audiences, and reviews were borderline nightmarish. If there were ever plans to turn The Avengers into a film franchise, they were quietly dropped in the aftermath.
StudioCanal’s latest take on The Avengers is in the works at the production company Wall to Wall, whose output includes Waterloo Road and the intimidatingly-named reality show Go Hard Or Go Home. At the time of writing, it isn’t known what network or streaming platform will show the series, Wall to Wall’s connection to Warner Bros Discovery suggests it might end up on one of the latter’s channels.
We’re also guessing it’ll need some kind of colon and subtitle, given there’s another mildly popular media property called The Avengers floating around. Perhaps they’ll call it Avengers: Secret Wars to avoid confusion?
More on this as it comes in.
